Today marks five years since a devastating storm system tore across southern Illinois, leaving miles of damage in its wake.
WSIU’s Jennifer Fuller takes a look back at Friday, May 8, 2009 that began like so many other late spring days in Southern Illinois.
While the sun was shining in the morning, trouble was brewing to the west: “We could see it forming overnight – especially around Wichita Kansas, and then when it got to Springfield, Missouri - at about six or seven in the morning- at that time it was already spawning tornadoes and 100-mile an hour winds. We were thinking, ‘You know, this is probably not going to dissipate before it gets to us.”
Pat Spoden is the Science and Operations Officer for the National Weather Service in Paducah. Forecasters were right – a line of severe weather was headed straight for the quad-state region, bringing powerful winds in excess of 100 mph, and heavy rain. Still, almost no one could have predicted what happened just a few hours later: “Normally what happens is you get a line of storms, you get a few gusts of high wind, and then it’s gone. Well, in this case, the vortex came in and did most of the damage itself. When that came in I think it caught most of us by surprise, and we didn’t at the time have a good way to communicate how strong the winds were, and how bad it was going to be.”
The storm, a derecho – classified by strong straight-line winds in a bowing formation, ripped along the Route 13 corridor … leaving a wide path of destruction that can still be seen today. The National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma have used the May 8th Derecho as a training tool, and as a guide on how to issue warnings in subsequent storms. Jackson County EMA Coordinator Derek Meisener says early notification helped his agency prepare – which can be hard to do with a system like this one: “The National Weather Service had offered early warning – and frequent warning. Local media gave frequent warning – something bad was going to happen, we anticipated tornadic activity, but had no idea it was going to be a derecho. People knew that something was going to happen, and I think they took proper precautions because of that, and that always decreases injuries and deaths.”
The derecho downed trees and power lines, leaving residents and businesses without power for days. A federal disaster was declared. Crews descended on the region to help rebuild, and most people were back in their normal routine within a few weeks. EMA Coordinators like Derek Meisener, Shawn Priddy, and Kelly Huddleston say five years later, the increased use of social media is making it easier to get messages out to people, and they hope the lessons learned in 2009 will help them be prepared for future disasters. Pat Spoden agrees, adding the Weather Service is always upgrading its warning system to make sure people get accurate, timely information when they need it most: “And so, when these things occur – and it will occur again – hopefully we’ll be able to be more uniform in the lead time for these things coming out. It all depends on how we draw the boxes. We know we’re going to need warnings, but how do you draw them to try to get the maximum amount of lead time for everybody, but at the same time, not clutter it up with 20 or 30 counties so no one actually hears the important stuff.”
Spoden says this storm changed not just what the warnings say, but how it is said. Regional leaders say they’re proud of how residents joined together in the recovery, and five years later they think changes put in place as a result of the derecho will help in recovery efforts in the future.
